1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pop-up flash of a camera which pops up out of a camera body in flash photography.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general flash photography, the flashlight may be partly intercepted by a part of the camera which is positioned in front of a light emitting portion of the flash (e.g., a front edge of a lens barrel, a lens hood or a conversion lens) in a direction of the photographing optical axis to cause vignetting if the light emitting portion is positioned too closely to the photographing optical axis or the rear of the camera body. For instance, various types of cameras are equipped with a pop-up flash movable between a retracted position, in which the light emitting portion is retracted into a camera body, and a pop-up position (projection position/fully-lifted position), in which the light emitting portion projects from the camera body. However, the dimensions of this type of pop-up flash and the space for the same are apt to be limited by the camera body. Giving a higher priority to the optical performance of the flash may increase the dimensions of the camera and have an adverse influence on the camera design.
A typical pop-up flash is continuously biased toward the pop-up position by a spring force, and is accordingly retracted into the camera body by manually depressing the pop-up flash against the spring force when the pop-up flash is retracted. However, there has been demand for improving this manual retracting operation as much as possible.